Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace

Translation 481 Vessantara-Jåtaka
[Fausbøll, Jåtaka, vol. VI, p. 481]
Both these, after their life was past, came into being in the world of gods. The elder
sister, passing from the world of gods to the world of men and back again, at the end of
the ninety-first age became Queen Māyā mother of the Buddha. The younger sister
passing to and fro in like manner, in the time of the Dasabala Kassapa became the
daughter of King Kiki; and being born with the semblance of a necklet upon her neck and
shoulders, beautiful as though drawn by a painter, she was named Uracchadā. When she
was a girl of sixteen years, she heard a pious utterance of the Master, and attained to the
fruit of the First Path, and so the very same day she attained sainthood, and then entered
the Order, and entered Nirvana.
Dasavaragāthå
The Stanzas of the Ten Boons 1
Now King Kiki had seven other daughters, whose names were:
"Samaṇī, Samaṇā, the holy Sister Guttā,
Bhikkhudāsikā, and Dhammā and Sudhammā,
And of the sisters the seventh Saṁghadāsī."
In this manifestation of the Buddha, these sisters were—
"Khemā, Uppalavaṇṇā, the third was Paṭācārā,
Gotamā, Dhammadinnā, and sixthly Mahāmāyā,
And of this band of sisters the seventh was Visākhā."
Now of these Phusatī became Sudhammā; who did good deeds and gave alms, and by
fruit of the offering of sandal wood done to Buddha Vipassī, had her body as it were
sprinkled with choice sandal wood. Then passing to and fro between the worlds of men
and of gods, eventually she became chief queen of Sakka king of the gods. After her days
there were done, 2 and the five customary signs were to be seen, Sakka king of the gods,
realizing that her time was exhausted, escorted her with great glory to the pleasaunce in
Nandana grove; then as she reclined on a richly adorned seat, he, sitting beside it, said to
her: "Dear Phusatī, ten boons I grant you: choose." With these words, he uttered the first
stanza in this Great Vessantara Birth with its thousand stanzas:
"Ten boons I give thee, Phusatī, O beauteous lady bright:
Choose thou whatever on the earth is precious in thy sight."
1
[Title inserted from the scholiast. -- jrb]
2 I.e. before she became the mother of Buddha.